Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
Flyover Country, Episode 61 – No Marching in Lock(ett)step
We are joined this week by Ricochet member Jamie Lockett (@jamielockett), to discuss Libertarianism, Ricochet personas, and the bigger picture. Jamie will be an American citizen at the end of this month – just in time for one of the most challenging elections any of us have ever seen. In retrospect, I might’ve titled this one: “Hillary and Trump: Welcome Wagon!”
Opening includes music from Ronald Jenkees. Closing is one of the most obnoxious pieces that late-90’s pop music ever produced… seemed fitting.
Published in Podcasts
This was fun! I hope I made sense.
Fabian libertarians unite!
As long as we do so gradually.
Listening to it there were a lot avenues to differentiate libertarianism from conservatism that I should have taken. Maybe a post…that should clear things up forever right?
I forgot to mention in the body of the post that our conversation was a good 2.5 hours… If the end seems truncated, that is because it is. I had to cut off some discussion and scoot up our closing a little bit.
Point being, there is so much to discuss, that any time we record one of these things, we can only scratch the very surface. It is rare that any one topic gets carried out all the way to its conclusion (and wrapped up with a neat little bow) because seemingly everything we talk about leads to something equally interesting, and always related.
I have said to Rob that “Flyover Country” is Ricochet, and I think it is certainly a glimpse of Ricochet. There is endless conversation, and even in our conflict, there is so much that ties everyone together. In that sense, it certainly does represent the member feed. I’d like to think that people might listen to it and see a bit of what they’re missing when they don’t join up.
Well, of course. We don’t want to ge ahead of ourselves.
Tom and I tried that about a year ago. It ended up sparking a heated debate on statutory rape laws. Good luck.
@jamielockett does not have an Australian accent!?
My world has been turned upside down!
I knew I left something out of the main post. Updated!
I had an English accent when I lived in Hong Kong. I’ve just spent 30 something years off and on either living in America or going to American schools. It rubs off.
FDR and Truman had power for 20 years (1933-1953), the longest stretch of a single party.
The public sector unions are awful, I agree with you Ryan. They are a PAC that works to elect those that they will be negotiating with. Of course they continue to get better and better contracts leading to larger and larger budget deficits at the city, county, and state level.
HA!
Everyone who reads this post / listens to this podcast should recommend this post!
1:21:28 — I bombed your podcast @ryanm. Sorry about that!
I almost made a comment at the time – assuming you had just encountered some sort of difficult computer villain.
My village was hit with malaria and then a pirate raid. Everyone died. :(
Terry gave me the stink eye if that makes it better!
What game were you playing. I’m intrigued.
The “raising awareness” problem has been around for a long time. It’s the little old English ladies in stories from the 1880s, who set up tea parties to gather donations for starving children somewhere in the British empire, meanwhile the children in Whitechapel starved to death. It’s not so much about helping people, so much as it’s showing you care about “helping” the victim group that is in vogue at any given time. There isn’t any way to really stop that.
What Reagan did to counter those feelings, and was very good at it, was tell his own stories people could rally around. A lot of people like to say that Reagan saw the United States as if it was a Frank Capra movie. To a point that is true, because Reagan did see the country like that. Which isn’t surprising since he was born in 1911. Reagan was very good at getting other people to see that vision as well, though.
Trump on the other hand treats America as if we are Italy at the end of the First World War. Yeah we won the war, but no one respect us anymore, the dirty foreigners are outsmarting our stupid politicians, and only his brilliance can possibly save this country from the mess corporate controlled politicians created. And people buy it, even though it makes no damn sense, and basically amount to admitting the American Dream is dead.
RimWorld! I do hope you didn’t catch the slew of profanity surrounding the “seriously?!”
I found the comments on CPS particular interesting. As a special ed teacher who spent more than 40 years in the classroom I had more than my share of experience with both types of social workers you mentioned. No question, though, they are totally overwhelmed with the number of cases they are expected to service. It is sure burnout situation. Seattle Schools is doing the same with their psychologists. The psychs are supposed to test and collect data on kids who have become “focus of concern” to determine if they qualify for special education services. The numbers get ridiculous. I have known a number of psychs over years. They simply burn out. They want to do a good job, do the best that they can for the kids, but they are put on a timeline that makes it nearly impossible to accomplish.
I was fortunate in choosing to do what I did. I was limited to 10 students in my class. Principals would attempt slip in a few extras, but I had state law on my side. Even ten could be a major handful when it came to producing Individual Educational Programs that had any validity at all.
It’s a difficult situation. On the one hand, ridiculous government bloat and their only solutions involve more of the same. On the other hand, I’ve got kids whose education plan basically includes “let them do whatever they want so they don’t disrupt everyone else.”
Concur fully that government employees should not be allowed to unionize. If someone has a problem with it, there are other places to go work.
As a department head, I had to review IEPs written by members of my department. Some of them were, frankly, an embarrassment. I was fortunate is getting some advanced training while working at Seattle Childrens Home in the 1980s. I wrote my IEPs in coordination with social workers and pschologists using their treatment plans as basis for the behavioral elements of the plan. Few, if any, special educators had that kind of advantage. It changed my thinking and my writing of the plans for the remainder of my career. I worked there for four years. I consider those years the most enjoyable and fulfilling of my teaching career. The professionalism of that institution made the special education department of Seattle Public Schools a joke. Unfortunately, due to conflicts with DSHS, the Childrens Home program was severely cut back, and Seattle Schools discontinued supplying teachers for their program. I moved from there to Juvenile Hall in Seattle for a year and thence to regular schools.
You must have a saintly patience (or a socially liberal disposition). I was in Seattle for 3 years and wouldn’t consider going back to work. Even in Yakima, the liberalism of my profession is infuriating. I can’t even imagine working in the public schools. If there was some viable business I could join that worked toward reforming and privatizing schools (and union busting!), I’d happily sign on.
Being an EBD teacher with a level 4 classroom was an ideal position for me. Very few teachers or administrators wandered into my classroom. By the time I had taught for a few years I stopped going to faculty meetings. My principals, realizing that I was essentially irreplaceable and considering anyone who did what I did to be eccentric, tended to leave me alone. When I retired I had accumulated almost 200 unused sick days. Most of those I used were gifts to friends who had used all of theirs.
In my final year my principal decided that I needed to attend faculty meetings. The first one I attended started with one of the administrators saying that she wanted to “share something.” My BS filters suddenly clogged. I thought I was going to suffocate. The room felt like it was closing in on me. By the time I finally left I had decided to retire at the end of that year rather than going another three years as I had planned. My replacement took 3 years to hire.
Even just reading comment threads it’s easy to see how things could seem to become adversarial pretty quickly. I have to remind myself that a person is not their internet comments so my mind doesn’t generate unsavory impressions of a person’s character whom I’ve never met.
I think if you didn’t want to have a beer with someone on Ricochet, that’s the person you should have a beer with, so you can remember that we’re all people arguing/commenting/debating in good faith and that some conversations just get a little more heated than others.
Flizzo, though completely unnessary, there is a standing invitation for you to come have a beer at my house. Preferably on a Tuesday night…
Just get the hot tub ready. Hopefully we don’t get rained on next time…
Since I started working nights, I’m inclined to start mixing it up a little more on Ricochet, but there are still times I get to a post that has over 100 comments, and it seems a little bit like a barrier to entry for the conversation.
I have a response to an early comment, but I feel obligated to read the whole thread in case someone already made the same point (probably better than I would have), and by the end I don’t really feel like I have anything to contribute.
You should have a discussion with one of your guests about different ways to use Ricochet. Or how to get the most out of a Ricochet account. I think that would be a good conversation.
Will do. In that scenario, I’d just power through, with a caveat: “haven’t read the comments, yet, but…” no sense letting a person’s better argument get in the way of my opinions. ;)